As John dropped out of the vortex, the Tenebach clan pressed their advantage before the others could even think of unifying, forcing the Serpent Watchers against the Twisting Terror clan. John would have been lying if he said taking advantage of the former in return for their previous blackmail wasn’t satisfying.

John’s sword swept forward, slicing through the shaft of the spear of their next strongest fighter, his personal energy augmented by the others of his clan around him. It was always satisfying, fighting alongside them- not just because of the power, but because his ability to smoothly control it was something he was good at… and unlike many of the other advantages he had, that part hadn’t been given to him. The blessing of Ciaritzal had improved his affinity with darkness from whatever it would have been to its current state, but the ability to control the flow of spiritual energy that others had was not part of that. That was something he’d discovered as early as when he first created Spiritual Energy Absorption.

With his primary weapon useless, the man was quickly cut down. Realizing the situation, some individuals began to flee, circling around the tree to gain distance. However, John’s position wasn’t chosen entirely by chance, and the mixed cultivators ran into the area with the waiting cultivators of the Tenebach clan.

Soon, it was just the Shadowhawk left. The spirit beast was already wounded from the Twisting Terror clan, having given of itself to protect its nest. John’s eyes met it. In them, he thought he saw signs of intelligence, but any sort of beast that could speak like Ciaritzal or Cuah’arn was an exception. More importantly, it would have been even more dangerous- even at the same stage.

“Aydan, with me,” John ordered. “The rest of you, keep in formation. Harry the creature with ranged attacks.” They would be less effective that way, but they could still funnel some of their spiritual energy to him to control- and with the Shadowhawk having the power of the Ascending Soul Phase, any careless moment could lead to their deaths if they engaged up close. He didn’t want to take the risk, even with the beast wounded… no, especially because it was wounded and doubtless knew its end would come.

John and Aydan ducked their way through another hail of feathers as they approached the base of the tree, then John propelled himself upward with his new technique. Feathers were retracted, aiming to hit him and his bamboo projection from behind and below, but John swept away the few that would hit him, trusting in the power of the Emerging Bamboo Sect’s technique to hold its form. It did, at least long enough for him to reach the peak and leap onto some of the thicker branches surrounding the Shadowhawk.

Immediately, the giant beak tried to take a bite out of him- or perhaps swallow him whole. John sidestepped with a bit of air element to support him between branches, and some darkness to blur his precise location. The Shadowhawk could likely do the same with darkness, if it were fighting optimally- but it still remained in its nest.

John danced around it, swiping at anything he could reach be it throat, wing, tail, or back. No slice was decisive, but he cut away at the creature’s spiritual energy, drawing some of it into himself. Alone he might not have been enough, but he had the power of a dozen others to call upon. Then Aydan reached them, the few moments still allowing many exchanges in a high level combat.

Flanked by two empowered cultivators, the Shadowhawk could not compete. It managed some close calls, its beak cutting into John’s side, but already weakened it soon fell… though now without a final attack, razor sharp feathers exploding around it, cutting through everything. Its tree fell apart, John and Aydan received handfuls of lacerations even through their enhanced defenses, and there were some close calls with the rest of the clan operating below, but the beast’s heart stopped.

Then began the process of binding wounds and collecting the spoils of war. Every part of the Shadowhawk was valuable, not least of which was its claws- unused in its defensive position over its nest. Even in death, its body did not fall onto its eggs, instead tenting over them to avoid crushing them. John could only promise the creature that such eggs would be used well. He already wanted a more reliable method of communication, and these fit the bill. Having beasts that could move swiftly, while also having the ability to cloak themselves and the combat ability to fight should it be necessary, would be quite advantageous. Not as swift as telegrams or phone calls, but aside from the difficulties of setting up such a network, those weren’t exactly secure. Not over the long distance between the Tenebach clan and the Brandle clan, or to their other allies. The Shimmering Islands would have been an issue anyway, and still might. John wasn’t exactly sure of a Shadowhawk’s ability to navigate the frequent storms in the area.

Along with the Shadowhawk, there was value to be gained from the fallen cultivators. Though they didn’t carry all of their wealth on them, on such a mission they would at least have valuable equipment. There was the issue of markings on some of them, which meant they would need to be removed somehow or sold anonymously, likely lowering the price. Though John was keen on some retaliation against the Serpent Watchers, he didn’t want things to become a war- and being involved in the death of three Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators would do that. Actually, that had to be a significant blow to their forces, but John still wasn’t keen on what sort of alliance they might throw together if they found out.

The Twisting Terror clan was more remote and already basically hostile, but he still didn’t want to be tied directly to things. Both clans would know their people set out for this prize and didn’t return, but the Tenebach clan could control the narrative and provide sufficient doubt.

If there had been other cultivators involved with no prior conflicts, John might have hesitated to simply kill all of them- the politics of a cultivation world were difficult, but not all conflicts resulted in hatred. Some were just inevitable, and people allowed to withdraw with their lives might be positively inclined.

The bodies of the cultivators were piled together and burned with spiritual fire. It was both to preserve their dignity, not being torn apart by animals, and to cover up any details of their presence. The ashes were buried at the roots of the significantly damaged tree.

-----

“I am not a bird,” Ciaritzal noted when John brought the torso sized eggs down below the Tenebach clan. “I’m not going to cuddle up to these things in a nest and keep them warm. In fact, I would much prefer to devour them.”

“I’d really rather you didn’t,” John said. “If it’s actually useful for you, we can feed you some choice parts of the mother, but I have plans for these. I do believe the darkness here will be sufficient to nurture them, in any case. No cuddling required.”

Ciaritzal sniffed one of the large eggs. “Yes, that does seem to be the case. They are quite hungry. But what will you feed them?”

“We took samples of all the bones around the area, though it seems likely they would eat almost anything. We’ll have people scouring libraries for any information on how to raise Shadowhawks, of course.”

John circulated his spiritual energy, guiding some of the darkness into the half dozen eggs they had. It was quite a large number, and hopefully sufficient for them to have more than one generation. From what he understood these eggs were larger than the norm- but that was to be expected with their mother. Along with that, John could hope that the offspring would be more impressive specimens than the average, though even if they turned out to be nothing special, Shadowhawks all had at least the potential to be equivalent to a Soul Expansion Phase cultivator- and as natural fliers, that was very valuable.

Each egg greedily absorbed the ambient darkness as well as what John offered, reminding him of Melanthina. Speaking of which, he wondered if she would be interested in being involved in raising them. It would be a valuable experience, and since she would likely be in the area frequently regardless to visit Ciaritzal or just to train, she might as well.

-----

Darkness swirled through John, but it didn’t stop there. Darkness flowed into earth, through air and water and back into itself. He eagerly awaited the time he could incorporate fire into his cultivation, but he really didn’t have enough of a grip to do more than let some passively remain present in his dantian and add a bit of heat to everything. Even so, his totems grew in strength along with his density of spiritual energy.

Almost without fanfare, his power condensed another rank, the thirty-second. The second step of the mid Consolidated Soul Phase, a welcome increase in power but nothing earth shattering. Having reached a particular section of a phase, it was almost guaranteed that any cultivator would complete the phase in time. The true difficulties were stepping from early to mid to late, and between phases. One or two more ranks would flow smoothly, otherwise.

John stretched as the power flowed through him. It still felt good, even if he knew it was coming. And the power wasn’t insignificant, though even if it was he would never complain of having more. Ursel had returned from the Viridia Wildlands, with plans to return for future training some years down the line. Then she and Melanthina had gone to their mother to resume the somewhat regular cycle. Tirto would return with them.

As for the Shadowhawk eggs, they were slow to develop. John thought that the Shadowhawks vigorous defense might have meant they would hatch soon, but instead it seemed the mother was simply very attached. Or perhaps these simply had a particularly long cycle, where a few more months wasn’t even enough for them to hatch. At least they appeared to be healthy and continuing to grow, and Ciaritzal had stopped complaining about their presence. Once or twice John had seen him slinking away from their chamber, finding the eggs imbued with lingering traces of his power.

John considered his next move. Not being at war was nice, and the lack of exciting local developments was a relief in some ways, but that mainly left training and wishing he was with Matayal. He focused on the former as much as possible, when not managing clan affairs. Now, he had in mind something for himself. His control over fire had hardly improved from his early days, where he could draw upon wisps of the energy. Sure, he was more powerful and thus the relative magnitude had increased, but he still wasn’t as familiar as he would like- and waiting to familiarize himself with the energy after he attuned to a fire totem seemed like a waste.

If nothing else, he couldn’t choose freely among fifth tier fire totems if he didn’t already have some skill at controlling fire. The Milanovic clan and Steve had been of little help, though not for lack of trying. Their methods simply didn’t work for John. He hoped he wasn’t just garbage at controlling fire. He was already so far into his cycle of elements, if fire was a weak point of his then it would have been better to forgo air as well and instead double up on the trio of darkness, water, and earth. That was assuming he reached the Exalted Soul Phase, of course, which was already pretty ambitious.

Still, he was at least confident in reaching the Ascending Soul Phase in his lifetime. Another decade and he should be at the peak of Consolidated Soul Phase, more or less. If he couldn’t surpass that point, reaching where he did so quickly would be rather odd. He couldn’t say much about beyond that, though, since literally nobody he had ever met knew anything beyond that point, and Consolidated Soul Phase had previously been rare in the region. But times were changing, and it seemed that throughout every land there was an increase in the growth of the younger generation. A phenomenon that couldn’t be explained, but had happened before.

But John wasn’t planning to give up on fire, just because his own attempts had been poor. He’d only really tried one style of learning from others on that topic, and just because it wasn’t for him didn’t mean he didn’t have the ability. What he had in mind was something that fit his cultivation anyway- the Phoenix Forest. The area’s claim to fame was not just the fire, but the forest part. In short, it was a region of both earth and fire. So far his flow of cultivation had been through dominating elements, but he already had earth so using it to support his learning of fire only made sense. If he succeeded, he would be left with only the final and likely hardest step… but it would be worth it to try.